About 92.10%[1] children are enrolled in school in West Bengal but do they really attend school every day? Are they regularly taught by their teachers in their respective standards? Do they know their text books well? It should be taken for granted that the 92.10% of children should at least know to read letters, words, paragraph or small stories in their mother language; and should be able to identify single numbers, two digit numbers, do minimum addition and borrowed subtraction. But, according to the ASER 2008, it is seen that only 84% can read letters, words or more and 84.8% can identify numbers from 1-9 in standard 1 and 2; while only 67.7% can read level 1 text and 55.5% can do subtraction or more between standards 3-5. Interesting facts were that only 36.9% children can tell time and 74% can do currency task between standards 3-5. The new programme this year, focuses on children of specific standards that are from class 1-5 including the focus on story and para level children. The Achha Padho, Accha Likho, Achha Gino (DRC, BEP Program) aims at increasing the level of the quality of education among the concerned target group in three subjects- language, mathematics and English through CAMAL(Combined Activities for Maximised Learning) activities and methodologies.
The District Resource Centre (DRC) and the Block Excellence Programme (BEP) incorporated in Achha Padho Achha Likho Achha Gino Program aims to:
- · Increase familiarity with the standard specific text books in Language, Mathematics and English.
- · To increase comprehension, reading, pronunciation skills.
- · Capacity building of the teachers in teaching three subjects with equal efficiency.
Unit | District | Block |
District Resource Centre (DRC) | Purulia | Jhalda II, Balarampur, Arsha |
Block Excellence Programme (BEP) | Darjeeling | Takdah |
Jalpaiguri | Rajganj | |
Coochbihar | Mathabhanga I | |
Birbhum | Mohammadbazar | |
Bankura | Sonamukhi |
District Resource Centre (DRC): The centre is located in Jhalda II Block of Purulia. The primary reason for choosing Purulia for this strategy was its socio-economic backwardness among all districts in West Bengal. Purulia is the district with maximum percentage of out of school children between 6 to 14 years of age rising up to 11.8% as per ASER 2008 data with the least motivation in the community level. It is aimed to reach out to at least 1000 villages throughout the year creating centers in the community level for teaching the three subjects. Purulia was chosen for the DRC as Purulia is the economically, socially and educationally backward district among all districts in West Bengal and Jhalda II being the backward of all blocks in West Bengal. However, the programme is now being expanded to 9 more blocks of Purulia.
Block Excellence Programme (BEP): Each block besides having a resource centre aims to reach out to at least 100 villages creating centre in each village teaching the three subjects. The districts for setting up the BEP were selected on the basis of the first five socio-economically and educationally backward districts among all districts of West Bengal as per ASER 2008 West Bengal.[2]
Primary Target Group | Children from classes 1-5, young teachers in the community. |
Secondary Target Group | Government schools, Panchayats, Parents and other stake holders |
[1] This is according to the DISE Data of 2007-2008.
[2] Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) publishes State Report through Pratham since 2005 which is done throughout 17 districts of West Bengal in randomly sampled households. ASER 2008 is done across 10,200 households of 501 villages. www.asercenter.org
